Review Summary: The words I thought I brought I left behind....obviously
The is an album. What an album it is. A great, big, loud, rock 'n roll album full of delicious pop hooks and raging guitars. It would be the album that saved rock 'n roll years before rock 'n roll was saved by some bands from Seattle. If only the radio wasn't ruled by crap like Bon Jovi and Def Whatever at the time The Replacements would have been king. Instead they peaked at #131 on the charts and we had to put up with Matt Wallace produced crap from the band on their next album as they attempted to crack the mainstream. Yup, this is what #131 sounds like to the Billboard Hot 100. If it had made the Hot 100. If your parents or grandparents now want to tell you they were rocking this s**t way back when, they are filthy liars. So who are all those people now at the Replacement reunion gigs? I sure as hell don't know, but they weren't there way back when.
Anywho this album has got the goods. From the opening rage of I.O.U to the closing pop classic Can't Hardly Wait with it's soulful horns and and guitar riff from heaven. In between you'll find the uproarious youth anthem Alex Chilton celebrating youth, the smokey jazz of Nightclub Jitters which is as good as any smokey jazz, the angst laden The Ledge which does indeed sound like a nervous suicide waiting to happen, and so much more.
Who can resist the headlong, 100mph blast to getting drunk on Sunday with the rocking Red, Red Wine, the lyrical brilliance of Valentine, and the lovely feeling of floating you get after a good bong hit with the beautiful ballad Skyway? I know I can't.
Paul Westerberg. What can you say about a guy like that. He plays all the guitars on this album. The raunchy, the loud, the quiet, the insanity. They may have been drunk when making this album, this band of drunks, but its one good argument for getting drunk. The Replacements would never be as great again, but hey they gave us this. Which is more then most bands poop out their sorry ass in a lifetime. So what does this album sound like? What will it do to you? It will change you, man. Your
life. If it doesn't you aren't worth a s**t so just die now. Music like this is meant to be heard, not read about. And heard again and again and again. So go listen. And let mom and pops know their music sucked way back when, but your music rules
now. #131 on the charts proves that. You know better. Yes you do. Even if it is 28 years after the fact.
